Vaccine therapy for renal cell carcinoma

Several potential vaccines have been evaluated for the treatment of patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). They include dendritic cells pulsed with tumor lysate, a dendritic cell-tumor cell hybrid, irradiated tumor cells admixed with adjuvants, and a heat shock protein-peptide complex. Promising results have been obtained in several early clinical trials, but issues of tumor immunosuppression and lack of identified tumor-associated antigens must be addressed before vaccine therapy can be applied successfully in advanced RCC. In this patient population, vaccine therapy will likely be required in combination with other forms of immunotherapy, such as interleukin-2 and thalidomide. In contrast, vaccine therapy alone may be sufficient for high-risk patients in the adjuvant setting.